MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM.
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native of Lisle in Flanders, a member of an opulent family, from which she fled in order to avoid a marriage which they were desirous for her to contract. Her turbulent disposition, in connection with her objectionable tenets, so disturbed the community where-ever she took up her residence, that the civil authorities had usually to interfere, and compel her to change her abode. Her doctrines nearly correspond to those of the Mystics, and are explained in a work entitled the "Light of the World," the leading principle of which is, that the Christian religion consists neither in knowledge nor practice, but in a certain internal feeling and divine impulse, which arises immediately from communion with the Deity.[1]
- ↑ One of the most influential of Bourignon's followers was a person named De Cordt, owner of a portion of the island of Holstein, who, at his death, made her his heir. She kept her wealth, however, to herself, under the pretence that she could find none worthy of her bounty! Although there is little doubt that her intellect was disordered, she was certainly possessed of considerable talent. She could write French, Dutch, and German, almost with equal facility, and her religious compositions were so numerous as to afford employment for a printing press kept in her own house. She died at Franeker in 1680. Her disciples, who assumed the name of Bourignonists, became more numerous after her decease; and one of the most celebrated of them, a Cartesian named Peter Poiret, attempted to reduce her works to a system, which was published at Amsterdam in 1686, under the title of "L'Œconomie Divine, où Systeme Universel." Her opinions, at one time, excited a good deal of discussion in Scotland, and notwithstanding their extravagance, found not a few supporters. See Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. V. p. 514, &c.
